David Vitter remakes himself as Senate insider

David Vitter is stepping up his attacks on Wall Street, slamming President Barack Obama’s oil policies and vowing to use a new committee perch to speed up unfinished levee work — issues that play well back home in Louisiana and could boost a possible bid for the governor’s mansion.

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Since an embarrassing sex scandal in 2007, the Louisiana Republican has lain low, ducking reporters at the Capitol and largely avoiding the media spotlight.

But Vitter has weathered a Category 3 public relations disaster that would have ruined most politicians. Voters shrugged at the scandal and overwhelmingly reelected him to a second term, and polls show he leads the field of potential candidates in the 2015 governor’s race. And he even has a new super PAC supporting him.

Now, it seems, he’s raising his profile in an effort to salvage his reputation and remake his public image.

“What he’s doing is pretty interesting to me,” said veteran Louisiana political strategist Roy Fletcher, who managed an unsuccessful primary campaign against Vitter in 2010. “He’s back in play in the United States Senate on the inside. He’s part of the institution, so to speak. But it also gives him the ability to pivot to a governor’s race if he wants to.

“He’s got options to play here or play there,” Fletcher added.

Supporting that notion, Vitter backers on Monday filed paperwork with state and federal agencies to launch a super PAC that could raise money for either a 2015 gubernatorial bid or Vitter’s 2016 reelection campaign, said Charlie Spies, a Washington attorney who served as counsel for Vitter’s 2010 campaign. The creation of the PAC was first reported by The Associated Press.

The Fund for Louisiana’s Future is an “independent entity that would have the ability to support him no matter which office he runs for,” Spies, who is serving as the super PAC’s treasurer, told POLITICO. Spies also co-founded the super PAC Restore Our Future, which supported Mitt Romney in 2012.

Vitter, who just replaced Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe as the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, will use his new post to push for changes to the Army Corps of Engineers — an agency he’s tangled with in the past and that’s proved unpopular with many of his hurricane-torn constituents.

His proposed reforms would cut red tape at the corps and expedite unfinished work on levees damaged during the deadly Hurricanes Katrina and Isaac.

“Most people don’t know what a ranking member is and don’t care, so it’s inside baseball,” Vitter said in a rare interview with POLITICO in his spacious, canary-yellow office in the Hart Senate Office Building. “But to the extent they focus on it, yes, I think they would see a benefit.”

No state is affected more by the corps than the Pelican State, Vitter said. Between hurricane and flood threats, coastal erosion and dredging, the massive agency plays a vital role in the livelihood and safety of Louisianans.

But Vitter pushed back on the suggestion he’s been more vocal and visible in the Senate in recent months — even as he bade good riddance to departing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and denounced Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as an “idiot” for comparing Hurricane Sandy to Katrina, which killed 1,800 people and caused $145 billion in damage on the Gulf Coast. Vitter believes a higher profile simply comes with the territory of becoming a ranking member.

“There’s no concerted or overall ramp-up in terms of profile,” he said.